What's in a name?
by BabyLezzie
Summary: PostRENT What's in a name? Joanne takes a moment to think back on various names she's been given throughout her life. MoJo. R&R! CHAPTER 12 UP! FINISHED!
1. Chapter 1

What's in a Name? Joanne POV FanFic 

Chapter One

To start from the beginning, there's Joanne, the one that's always been with me from the start. I never really thought to ask my parents where they got it from, I just always assumed it was the name of one of my great-aunts or something. Then I have Kitten, that's what my dad started calling me around the time when I turned three, he says it's because I would curl up in a ball like a little innocent kitten whenever I would sleep. I had a few given to me throughout high school, but those I would rather not discuss right now. Pookie is the one name that everybody knows about. Maureen began calling me Pookie about a month into our relationship, and since then I've noticed that each new level we reach in our relationship we get a new name from each other. It's amazing that we've gotten this far. If you would have asked me two years ago if I would have ever pictured myself at this name with Maureen I would have laughed in your face. Boy was I wrong. And boy was my life about to change.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: ok so in the first chapter i screwed up and forgot the disclaimer and now i can't figure out how to edit it(this is my first fic), so i just want to say that as brilliant as you all think i am, it was jonathan larson who created these characters back in 95/96 and not my 5/6 year old self, although i DO own any and all offspring and the homophobic woman in the bookstore but neither appear in this chapter.**

I came home from the office that day to find Maureen curled up on the couch eating popcorn and watching TV. I sat down next to her and kissed her on the forehead as she snuggled up close to me and got comfortable with her head resting in my lap. God she was beautiful. We sat there in silence for a few minutes just watching the TV screen. Suddenly she rolled over to look up at me. I just looked down at her, smiling. Out of nowhere she suddenly asked "Do you want to be momma or mommy?"

"Huh?" I looked at her, confused. Did this mean that...

"Pookie, I'm pregnant!" She squealed as she quickly sat up and turned around, straddling me. She was beaming.

"So do you want to me momma or mommy?" She asked again, eager for my reply.

"Oh... my... god." I just sat there, my mouth hanging open. I wasn't sure what to say; this was just too amazing. I was about to give up on being a mother after a very unsuccessful year of trying to have a baby with both of our DNA. But now she was pregnant. Oh my god. We were gonna be moms.

"Pookie? Are you okay?" She asked, her smile fading a bit. I guess I looked more shocked than I realized.

"Momma." I said. "I want to be momma."

As I finished saying this, she started bouncing up and down, obviously forgetting where she was sitting.

"Honeybear..." I started to say, but as I leaned in to kiss her she jumped out of my lap and ran for the phone.

"Who should we call first?"

"Are you serious, Mo?" I asked her, hoping she'd sense the annoyance in my voice. "You tell me that I'm going to be a mom and you, Maureen Johnson, doesn't want to celebrate right away?" I arched my left eyebrow at her. "I know that being pregnant can lower your sex drive, but I didn't think it would be this soon."

She stood there for a minute biting her bottom lip in thought. She knew how much that turned me on, and right now she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding the fact that she was doing this on purpose because she was starting to smile a little. When I couldn't take it anymore I grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hallway to our bedroom.

**I ran a spell check on this but I know the grammer may not be completely correct because I suck at writing stories with dialogue, so if anyone has any suggestions let me know!**


	3. Chapter 3

**As promised, here's chapter three and it's longer than the first two. Sorry it's taken me so long to get it up, I'm possibly the laziest person in the world when it comes to getting my chapters typed up. I'm currently working on chapter seven and I think I'm having too much fun with that to be motivated to type up chapter four(which is about three times longer than this one). I'll try really hard to get it up tomorrow, but if I'm not able to don't get worried, just know that I have four more chapters written so far, and I'm nowhere near finished yet!**

**Oh yea, if you didn't already notice, I don't own Maureen or Joanne or any other character from Rent.**

Just lying there with Maureen in my arms made my life feel complete. Her legs entwined with mine and her soft, warm body pressed up against mine just felt so natural. I storked my hands through her soft, dark curls as we gazed into each other's eyes. She was beautiful. What did I ever do to deserve her?

"I love you." I whispered as I kissed the tip of her nose. She giggled. "Mommabear" I decided to add in.

_"Mommybear"_ she quickly corrected me. "How can we expect our kid to get that right if you can't?" she said, kissing the tip of my nose. I pulled her closer.

"Well, after I'm done with you tonight I won't be forgetting again I said as I started to nibble on her ear. "Assuming you'll be as vocal as you usually are."

The next morning I woke up with Maureen in my arms mumbling something about chickens and frying pans in her sleep. She was so cute when she slept. I glanced over at the clock and realized that I should probably start getting ready for work. As much as I hated to leave her today, I knew that I had to. I managed to untangle myself and get out of our bed without waking her up. I stood there for a minute just watching her sleep before turning towards the bathroom to take a shower.

I was in the kitchen getting my coffee when I heard her stumble out of bed. I laughed to myself as I thought about what I'll have to go through with her for the next nine months. I couldn't imagine anything with her getting crazier than it already was, but this _is_ Maureen I'm talking about, so I could never really prepare myself for her. I was quickly brought back to reality by the sound of her whining as she walked down the hallway.

"Pookie, I woke up and you were gone," she said, crossing her arms across her chest as she stuck out her bottom lip in an attempt to pout. "I was cold."

"Well, that's something I'd certainly expect from going to bed naked," I said with a smile, not being able to resist her child-like expression.

"I know, but..." she started, walking over to the refrigerator. As she opened it, she continued. "I just thought you'd be there." There was a small hint of disappointment in her voice that sounded almost genuine, so I walked over and put my arms around her wait. Looking her in the eye I said "Aw, don't get upset honeybear. Tomorrow's saturday, so I'll be there when you wake up, but right now I need to get going or I'm going to be late for work." I kissed her forhead and as I pulled away I noticed that her bottom lip was sticking out again. "What?"

"It's just that I thought, maybe, you'd stay home today, you know, since celebrating was iyour/i idea." As she said that she arched her right eyebrow at me. "Pookie, can't you call you office and tell them that you need the day off?"

I stood there and thought about that for a minute before answering. "What am I supposed to tell them? I can't come in today because my wife's pregnant and I need to take this chance to be with her while I'm still able to go down on her?" I asked her.

"Sure. Who wouldn't understand that?"

Was she serious?

"Well, I really don't have anything important that needs to get done today..." I said, although more to myself than to her. "I'll call Julia and tell her to reschedule my lunch meeting for Monday and then I'm all your's." I stepped away from her, smiling. I needed to get out of these workclothes if I was going to have any fun at all with her today.

"Shopping?" she asked me suddenly, with a quizical look on her face. For a minute I was confused, but then I understood.

"Sure thing, honeybear. Just let me change out of these clothes." I gave her a smile as I let go of her hands. "And you'd better put on something else if you don't want to freeze out there."

"Okay, Pookie!" she chirped as she skipped down the hall to our bedroom. I smiled as I thought about how lucky I was to have such a wonderful wife and how lucky our child was going to be to have Maureen as her mother.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it's taken me so long to get this typed up, like I said earlier, I am possibly the laziest person in the world. Don't worry though if it takes me awhile to get the next chapter up, I'm still working on the story! I'm working on chapter 12 right now, and I'm thinking one more chapter after that and then the end. I think I'm gonna write a sequel to it because I'm ok with skipping months in a story, but I think my story would be weird if I skip years. Oh yea, this isn't the original chapter 4 that I wrote, but because of my laziness, I didn't feel like typing up chapter 4A because there wasn't really anything important in it that would apply later in the story, except that Maureen's mom called while they were shopping and then her and Jo decided to have all of their parents over for dinner, which is what's happening now. If I get lots of reviews I may post chapter 4A later, and so that you guys don't get confused this chapter is going to be referred to as both chapter 5 and chapter 4B. Enjoy!**

**Oh yea, obviouslyI don't own Maureen, Joanne, or their parents, Jonathan Larson does.**

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That night as I sat across from Maureen during dinner I realized how nervous I was about telling my parents. Dad was pretty cool with our relationship, but my mom was still trying to set me up with the "right" guy for me. I looked up at Maureen and she nodded at me, our signal for me to begin. 

"Mom, Dad, Mr. and Mrs.Johnson," I folded my hands in front of me and continued,"Maureen is... well, Maureen and I are"

"We're gonna have a baby!" Maureen excitedly interrupted me, smiling for the first time that night. We made eye contact with each other before looking to each of our parents to gauge their reactions. Maureen's aprents had the same uncomfortable smile on their faces that they had our wedding. My dad looked like he understood, but my mom looked confused.

"So you're going to adopt?" she asked me.

"Actually, Mrs.Jefferson, I'm pregnant," Maureen told her, surprising me with how much she had managed to calm down. "We've been going to different doctors trying to mix our DNA for the past the past year, and after so many attempts to get me pregnant, I am."

My mom turned and looked at me. "Joanne, is this true?"

"Yes, mom. You know how much Maureen and I have wanted a child, so why do you think we would lie about something like this?" I was starting to get mad. Couldn't she be happy for me, just once? Before she got a chance to respond, my father began talking.

"Well, kitten, all I can say is congratulations! As long as you and Maureen are happy, I'm happy." He smiled at me and then Maureen. If he was able to accept this then why couldn't my mom?

"Yes, as long as you two are happy, then we're happy," Maureen's mom said, the uneasy smile on her face disapearing a bit, and I could tell that she truly meant what she was saying. "We'll be happy to help any way that we can"

"Thanks mom." Maureen said as she stood up and hugged both of her parents.

"We should get going," my dad said as he pushed back his chair and stood up. "It's getting late and these two are going to need all the sleep that they can get." He came over and hugged as my mom went to go get their coats. I gave each of Maureen's parents a hug and thanked them for coming and reassured her mom that we would call if we needed anything. My mom came back with their coats and hugged Maureen before walking out the door. My dad and I exchanged confused looks as she did this because she inever/i left without saying good-bye to me. I just shrugged my shoulders signaling to him to just let it go. He hugged Maureen and I and then congratulated us again before finally leaving and shuttin gthe door behind him. As soon as the door shut I grabbed Maureen and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'll go clean up. You go relax." I kissed her on the lips and slapped her ass which caused her to giggle. "Don't worry, it'll only take me a minute," I said as I winked at her.

I let go of her and watcher her as she walked down the hallway, again thinking about how beautiful our baby was going to be, all because she was going to have Maureen's genes.

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**ok, so i don't really like the last sentence, but i couldn't think of anything else to put. sorry about the spelling and punctuation errors, something happened when i uploaded this from notepad, and i couldn't run a spellcheck because word is being stupid, but i think the spelling is close enough for you guys to get it. if anything's confusing, just ask me. oh yea, i love reviews! if you guys have any suggestions for me feel free to message me or whatever... i might be able to change the upcoming chapters a little. also i'm looking for someone to play alexa's girlfriend in chapter 11, i think alexa appears in the next chapter, but i'm working on the chapter where her girlfriend appears and i feel like writing someone in. so yea message me if you want to be her girlfriend. and i'll shut up now. oh yea, for those who didn't get it the first time, i like reviews!**


	5. Chapter 5

**i'm on a role today! here's chapter five, now notepad is being stupid or maybe it's ff, but whatever it is i noticed that some punctuation marks are disappearing when i upload the chapters, so sorry if there's some missing! i don't have time to write something long because i have to leave for school in a few minutes, but i'll try to update when i get home! also, i changed it to movie world because i mentioned the engagement party.**

**OH YEA, YOU GUYS GET TO MEET ALEXA IN THIS CHAPTER! YAY! (sorry, i had a lot of coffee this morning)**

**oh yea, i don't own anyone in this chapter except for cynthia and alexa.**

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When I opened the door the door to our apartment on Monday I almost had a heart attack when I saw that Maureen wasn't on the couch watching TV and that there was inothing/i anywhere on the floor. I heard Maureen singing in the kitchen, so I decided to go see what she was up to. 

"Pookie!"

I had barely made it into the kitchen before I was holding her with her legs wrapped around my waist, as she kissed me the way she welcomed me home from work everyday for as long as I could remember.

"Ohmigod Pookie, I missed you _so_ much today," she said, breaking the kiss. "I got so bored that I cleaned the entire apartment and even made you dinner."

I laughed at the thought that she had managed to survive those two tasks, and even more at the fact that she hadn't burned down the whole building with her cooking. Maureen and cooking were two words that you never ever used in the same sentence, especially if the word cleaning was added to them. She struggled to get down, and as I placed her back on the floor she said, "Come on, Pookie. Let's eat before it gets cold."

After dinner we snuggled up on the couch to watch a movie. She had picked out Gone With the Wind, my favorite movie that I knew she only watched because I loved it so much. She asked me about my day and I told her about the case I had just wrapped up and how my friends at the office were excited to hear about the baby. A couple of them had kids already and all the dads in my office were more than happy to tell me what I was going to be going through in the next nine months.

About halfway through the movie I was playing with her hair when I told her how much I hope our baby had her curls. She giggled and looked up to kiss me.

"What do you think we shouldname her?"

It was pretty much a given that she was going to be a girl, seeing as how neither Maureen or I had any Y chromosomes. She rolled over so that she was facing me with her head propped up on her hand before answering. "Well, I've always liked the name Madison. It's pretty"

"Just like you," I said as I kissed her nose. "But we have nine months to figure that out. Right now I think that both of us need to be getting to bed. You need your rest and I have to work tomorrow"

She stuck her lip out at me which caused me to start laughing as I climbed over her to get off of the couch. I picked her up and carried her back to bed, thinking about how in a few months she'd be too heavy for me to carry.

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The next morning I was sitting ath my desk about to call Maureen and tell her I was going to take the rest of the day off when my phone rang. It was my boss, Clark, asking if I wanted to take on an emancipation case because nobody else in the office wanted to take it, and they needed someone for it ASAP. Apparently there was a woman with her 15-year old neice in his office and they needed to meet with someone today. I had nothing else to work on, so I told him I'd take it. Less than five minutes later there was a knock on my door. 

"It's open," I said. I was too comfortable and lazy to get up from my desk. I looked up from my computer as the door opened and watched a woman who looked to be about 40 walk in, followed by a girl who looked about 18.

"I'm Joanne Jefferson. You must be Cynthia." I extended my hand as I stood up behind my desk.

"Nice to meet you, Joanne. I'm Cynthia Burg, and this is my neice, Alexa Pierce"

I took one look at Alexa andthought abouthow much she resembled Maureen. She had wavy dark brown hair that was partially pulled back, with the rest reaching a little below her shoulders. She had dark brown eyes that were very prominent compared to her pale skin. She was wearing a cut up t-shirt jersey with some jeans, and if I didn't already know that she was 15 I would have guessed she was 18.

"Hi Alexa. Why don't you and your aunt have a seat?" I shook her hand before she sat down, and as I did she displayed a smile that after being married to Maureen for two years I was immediately able to tell was fake.

I took notes as Cynthia told me Alexa's story and what they needed my help with. This seemed like a typical emancipation case; the teenager doesn't get along with her parents, another family member thinks that they would do better on their own and would be capable of living by themselves, so I couldn't figure out why everyone else in the firm had turned it down. I glanced over at Alexa again and this time I found her fidgeting. There was something about the way she had suddenly started to act that was familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I noticed that she was looking at something on my desk and when I looked down to see what it was I wanted to kick myself. Shit. It was a picture of Maureen and I from the engagement party that my parents had thrown for us a few years ago. I _always_ put it away before meeting with a new client and I never mentioned Maureen unless someone asked. I was pretty sure that Cynthia hadn't noticed it yet, so I didn't worry too much. I read over the notes that I had been taking and saw that I had everything I needed for the moment. I thanked Cynthia for coming and and told her to set up another appointment with my secretary for sometime early next week. As they walked out of my office Alexa looked back at me and attempted a smile and even managed to mumble something that sounded to me like a weak good-bye. As I watched her walk down the hall behind her aunt I couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was something about her that no one was telling me.

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**did you like it? review and let me know! i'm still looking for someone to be alexa's best friend, so message me if you want to be her! oh yea, i accidently said girlfriend in my last chapter, i meant to say best friend and i'm too lazy to take it down and edit it or whatever so i thought i'd clear that up now.**

**review please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**ok, so i was actually able to get chapters 6&7 typed up in word, so i think everything got uploaded right, and if it didn't sorry, but i'm too lazy to proofread it AGAIN here. so yea. this is chapter 6... sorry it took so long!**

**oooohhhh yea... i don't want to get any shit about some of the stuff that comes up at the end of the chapter. you don't know me or know what i've been through, so don't tell me that i don't know what i'm talking about.**

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About three months later Maureen and I were sitting on the couch looking at sonograms when my work phone rang.

"Hang on a sec, Honeybear. I'll be right back." I got up from the couch and ran to the study/nursery to answer my phone. No one from the office ever called me after 5 unless it was an emergency. I grabbed the phone out of my bag and flipped it open.

"Joanne Jefferson."

"Joanne! I'm so glad I was able to reach you! This is Cynthia Burg, Alexa's aunt?" Why was she calling me? "Look, I just had something for work com up and I have to fly out to California tonight. They won't let me bring Lex, and I don't want to leave her here alone all week, so I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor? Would be possible for Alexa to stay with you for a week? I realize how awkward this may be, but I don't feel comfortable leaving her with one of my friends considering her situation."

"Well, Cynthia, I'm not sure…" They still didn't know about Maureen and I wasn't sure how this would work out. "Are you sure there isn't any other place that she can stay?" I asked her as I settled myself back onto the couch next to Maureen. "We have an extra room in our apartment, but I'm not sure if it will work…"

"Oh, Joanne, you never said anything about being married! Why wouldn't it work? If you're worried about Alexa being around other people, you don't need to worry, she'll be fine! I'd have to bring her over right now, my plane leaves in an hour. Is it okay if we're there in 15 minutes?"

She had me trapped. There wasn't any time for me to discuss this with Maureen, and there wasn't any way for me to say no now.

"Sure," I said, "see you in 15."

I hung up the phone and looked at Maureen, who was completely lost as she sat there watching me rub the bridge of my nose. "We have 15 minutes to set up the nursery so a 16-year-old can stay in it. I'll explain while we're cleaning."

Fifteen minutes later we had the stroller and partially assembled crib shoved in the corner and an inflatable mattress taking up most of the floor and a realization that we had no extra sheets, when there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it Pookie" Maureen said as she jumped up from the floor and left the room. She was almost to the door by the time I decided to get up and follow her.

"Hi, um, I'm sorry, but we must have the wrong address." Cynthia said as she glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand as I turned the corner. She glanced up at the sound of my footsteps and smiled when she saw me. "Joanne! I'm so glad to see you! For a second I thought I had written your address down wrong and I didn't know what I was going to do!"

"Well, I'm glad you found it okay," I said as I wrapped my arm around Maureen's bare waist. She was wearing a tank top the exposed part of her growing belly. "This is my wife, Maureen. Maureen, this is Cynthia and her niece, Alexa. Why don't you two come in?" I saw no change in Cynthia's facial expression at this revelation, but I saw a smirk on Alexa's face, like she had known all along. "We just finished cleaning up the nursery to make room for Alexa to sleep."

"I really need to get going so I don't miss my flight," Cynthia said as she shoved a duffel bag into Alexa's hands. "Lex has all my numbers in case anything happens, but I'm sure you guys will be fine." She gave Alexa a kiss on the forehead. "Bye Lex. I'll see you next week. Be good for Joanne and, um, Maureen, right?" She turned to us and said, "Thank you guys so much." She gave Alexa one last kiss on the head before turning and walking to the elevators. I turned and looked at Alexa, my arm still around Maureen, who was the first to break the silence.

"So… Alexa. We set up a bed for you in the nursery. You can go put your stuff in there and then come out for dinner." She pulled me over to give Alexa room to walk in.

"Thanks," she said as she walked into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind her. "So what's the situation here?"

I immediately knew what she meant and I had no clue how I was supposed to answer that. "Well, Maureen, is my wife, and, um, that's all there is to know." I pulled Maureen close to me again and realized what I forgot. "Oh yea, she's pregnant. The only spare room we have is the one that's going to be the nursery, so you'll have to excuse the mess in there."

"Okay. Whatever," she said as she picked her bag up and walked back to the open door of the nursery. After she kicked the door shut (again) I pulled Maureen down with me as I sat on the couch. I heard the door open and saw Alexa walk out with a Ziploc bag filled with medicine bottles. "Can I put these in the kitchen?"

"Sure" I told her as I got up from the couch, leading her into the kitchen. I heard Maureen get up and follow us. "You can set them right there and have a seat at the table, we were just about to eat dinner."

She threw the bag onto the counter and then took a seat the table. Maureen sat down next to her and watched as Alexa looked our kitchen. I pulled something frozen out of the freezer and stuck it in the microwave before sitting down at the table opposite of them. This time, I was the one to break the silence.

"So… I guess we're going to get to know each other pretty well this week. I don't think I've ever had a client stay with me before." I looked at Maureen and then back at Alexa, waiting for one of them to say something. I wasn't surprised that Alexa stayed silent, but it was very unlike Maureen to keep her mouth shut. None of us had ever been in a situation like this before, and we were obviously uncomfortable with it. I decided to continue.

"What medicines do you take? That seems like something Mo and I should know about." I didn't have the slightest idea why I was asking her this because I most likely wasn't going to know of anything she took.

"Well, I take Prozac, Lithium, and Ritalin every morning, except on weekends when I don't take the Ritalin. I also have to take Retrovir when I get up, and then at noon and before I go to bed. By the way, I'm HIV positive. I also have to take the Prozac again before I go to bed. My alarm is always set to wake me up at 7 because I have to take the Retrovir then, and then my watch is set for noon and then 7pm. " As she finished she crossed her arms across her chest and propped bare feet up on the table. "Anything else you need to know?"

"No, that's all for now." The microwave beeped and I got up to get the food out. "Let's eat," I said as I placed a plate in front of each of them. I couldn't help but notice the scars under Alexa's jeans as she pulled her feet down from the table and I could tell that Maureen had noticed the red lines covering her arms as she reached across the table for a napkin. I decided that now was not the right time to ask about them, and I made a mental note to do that later. The rest of dinner was pretty uneventful, Maureen and I talked about where she was going to have the baby (we finally came to the decision that the hospital would be the best place for her- the drama queen who can't stand pain) and Alexa just sat there and quietly listened.

After dinner Maureen went to take a shower, which left me alone with Alexa as I cleaned up the kitchen. She was handing me the glasses and plates from the table and I figured this would be a good time to ask her about the lines on her wrist.

"They're nothing," she quickly responded and changed the subject. "So how long have you and Maureen been married?"

"Alexa, answer my question." I was surprised at how stern I sounded when I said that. "What are those marks from?" I put down the dishes that I had been loading into the dishwasher and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting. "Alexa, I mean it. I'm responsible for you this week, and you're not leaving this room until you tell me. If you don't then I'll just call your aunt and ask her. Do you want me to do that?"

"No," she mumbled and looked at the floor as she sank into a chair. "I did them, ok? All of them. The ones on my wrists are from when I tried to kill myself. I would have gotten away with it too if I hadn't had fucked up and gotten caught. I spent almost a year in a psych ward, and now I'm here. I don't do it anymore, but I sure as hell want to.

She glared at me, daring me to scold her. I wasn't sure what to say; tonight seemed to be full of firsts and surprises for me. It wasn't as if this was a new situation for me; in fact, it was extremely familiar. I considered telling her about everything I had been through in high school, but decided against it when I remembered that I still had not told any of it to Maureen. I heard the shower go off and know that Maureen would be out here soon so that we could study the book for our parenting class tomorrow, the one we were supposed to read last week.

"I understand," I said in the voice I never used at home, the one that was only heard in court. "Just remember that Maureen and I are here to talk if you need us." She nodded and slid her feet off of the table. I turned around and continued loading the dishwasher before picking the books up off of the table and headed out to the living room to wait for Maureen. Alexa followed me out of the kitchen and headed to her room, passing Maureen who was walking down the hall rubbing lotion on her belly. Maureen came and joined me on the couch, and even though I tried to hide it, she was able to tell that I had been crying.

"Pookie, what's wrong?" She looked worried. Should I tell her? "Is there something going on with Alexa that I need to know about?"

"It's not Alexa. Mo, I don't think we should study tonight. I have a lot of things that I need to tell you."

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**so what did you guys think? leave me reviews please! **


	7. Chapter 7

**soooo... here's chapter 7! i didn't have school yesterday so i was able to type up both 6 and 7... next tuesday is my last day, so expect more frequent updates!**

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I couldn't believe that Maureen was making me do this. The day after I told her about my past she insisted that I go see a psychiatrist. Again. It didn't take long for me to give into her because I knew she wasn't going to give up until I did. So here I was, sitting in office with Maureen next to me holding my hand.

"So, Joanne, what brings you in to see me today?" appeared to me to be in his late forties, with some grey hairs appearing in his dark brown crew cut.

"Well, Maureen thought that I should see someone again, so I am." I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Maureen who squeezed my hand for reassurance. "I haven't been to a doctor in years, so I guess she's right."

"That's great that you're doing this for yourself," he said as he took papers out of his desk and put them on a clipboard. "I'm going to need you to fill these out real quick before we begin. This is going to take at least an hour, so your friend doesn't have to wait here." He nodded his head at Maureen as he handed me the clipboard.

"Oh, well, Maureen isn't my friend. She's my wife. I don't think she'll mind waiting for me." I looked at Maureen who nodded and said that she wouldn't mind waiting, and then back over at who looked confused. "Um, ok. But she'll have to wait out in the lobby."

Maureen squeezed my hand one last time before letting go and standing up. She kissed my forehead and walked out of the office. I turned and faced and crossed my legs. This was going to be a very long hour.

Two hours later Maureen and I were on the elevator headed back up to our apartment. had given me a prescription for an anti-anxiety medicine that I was supposed to start taking tonight, along with an anti-depressant. Although he didn't say it, I had a feeling that he had given me that anti-anxiety one because Maureen was pregnant, and she agreed with me. I was also hoping that it would help to relieve some of the stress I had been under since I had taken on Alexa's case.

When Maureen and I entered the apartment we found Alexa asleep on the couch with the TV on. It was only 7:30 but I wasn't surprised that she was tired after everything we had gone over today. Cynthia was still out of town which left a lot of answered questions for Alexa and I, such as her school and medical histories. I hung up my coat in the closet and barely made it to the bedroom before collapsing on the bed. I felt the mattress shake as Maureen dropped down on the bed next to me.

"Pookie, why are you going to bed so early? Are you ok?" I rolled over to face her and saw that she looked worried.

"Nothing's wrong, Honeybear. I just wanted to try and get some extra sleep because Alexa and I are driving down to Maryland tomorrow to meet with her parents." I ran my fingers through her hair as I talked to calm her. She sniffled a little bit, making me start to worry about her. "Are you okay?"

"It's just a little cold, Pookie. Nothing to worry about." She tousled my hair. "But I thought you were going to wait for Cynthia to come before you went to go meet with Alexa's parents?"

"We were, but I talked to Cynthia today and she said that she's going to be gone for at least another week, and I want to get this out of the way as soon as I can," I told her. I began to wonder if it was a good idea to leave her alone for two days, and then came to the conclusion that it wasn't. "Do you want to go with us? I'm not sure I'll be able to survive with Alexa as my only company for two days." She bit her lip and as she thought about this, then nodded her head said she'd love to go, then rolled over and got up out of bed.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna take a shower before I go to bed. Care to join me?"

"Do you even need to ask?" I quickly got out of bed and followed her to our bathroom.

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**like it? leave me reviews!**

**and since i've gotten a lot of questions about joanne's past when i posted this on myspace, i figured i'd clear it up here. basically if you know me then you can come to a pretty good conclusion about what happened to her, but if not, then just use your imagination. since i've already finished this story and i'm working on the sequel i can't write it in, but i'm trying to find a way to write it into the sequel since so many people want to know. and yea, i guess that's all!**

**don't forget to review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys- sorry the updates aren't closer together! i'm trying to get chapter 9 typed up, but my mom keeps kicking me off of the computer, so i have no clue when that'll be up. i'm going to texas on tuesday and i'm trying to get the rest of the story(and maybe even the beginning of the sequel)typed up before i go(there are 13 chapters) so i'll only have to worry about the sequel when i get home(i already have 5 chapters for it written). so yea. i hope you guys like this one, um, i don't think there's too much for me to say, except i basically don't know shit about emancipation cases and all this legal crap(yet i think i'd make the perfect lawyer...) but since that's not the whole point of the story i didn't pay too much attention to getting it right, so i just kinda made up my own little emancipation process. so anyways, i hope you guys enjoy it and please please please review!**

**oh yea, i also don't own maureen or joanne, the amazing jonathan larson does, but alexa and her parents are all mine :-D**

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"Pookie, I have to pee really really bad," Maureen whined, "can you stop for a minute, PLEASE? 

"Maureen, I already told you, there's no place where we can stop for at least another thirty minutes, so you're going to have to hold it." I looked away from the road for a minutes so I could give her my infamous reassuring smile, but stopped when I saw that she was about to cry. "Aw, Honeybear, I'm sorry. I promise I'll stop at the first chance I get, just please don't cry. Not with Alexa in the back seat." She giggled and tried to smile, despite the paint she was in. I turned my concentration back to the road and tried to focus on driving, but it was hard because I couldn't stand to know that she was in pain, even if it wasn't serious.

We drove in silence for about 20 minutes before Alexa woke up. She had fallen asleep across the seat and I watched her in the rear-view mirror as she sat up. Her dark hair was a meson top of her head and her eyeliner smeared across her face as she rubbed her eyes.

"Are we almost there? I need to go to the bathroom." I looked at her in the rear-view mirror and let out a sigh.

"Like I was just telling Maureen, I'll stop when I get a chance to, unless you want to go in the bushes."

"Actually, Pookie, that sounds like a good idea."

I turned and looked at her. Was she serious? My Maureen, the drama queen, wanted to pee in a bush? Then again, she was pregnant, and pregnant women have been known to do some pretty crazy things.

"I like that idea, too." Alexa said as she shifted in her seat.

"Ok, I'll pull over in a minute, as soon as I see a place where you can pee."

After the two of them had finished relieving themselves and gotten back in the car Alexa started to complain that she was hungry, which reminded Maureen that she was too. I leaned back against my seat and closed my eyes. I had no idea how I was going to survive the two hours we had left, plus make it through dinner with Alexa's parents. Oh shit. I quickly sat back up and turned around to face Alexa.

"You called your parents and told them that we were coming today, right?" I couldn't believe that I had forgotten to call them; I _never_ forgot. What kind of lawyer was I turning into?

"Yea, I called them. They know." She didn't sound too convincing, but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it was because she was preoccupied looking through her backpack for food. "Hey Mo, did you bring any food?"

"Did you just call her Mo?" Did I just say that out loud? Maureen put her hand on my arm. "Pookie, relax. Everyone calls me Mo." She looked at me and I thought she was going to cry. Shit. I must've sounded really mad. I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I know. I'm just a little tired from driving." I turned back to the steering wheel and started driving again, praying that we'd get to a restaurant soon because I began to realize how hungry I was.

Almost four hours later I was pulling up in front of a small two-story house in a quiet neighborhood. I stopped the car and looked back at Alexa who nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders. I looked at Maureen as I took off my seatbelt and opened my door. "Here goes nothing."

The three of us stood at the door waiting for someone to open it. Next to the actual hearing, meeting with Alexa's parents was the most important, and usually most difficult, part of an emancipation. Standing there I realized that I was the only one who seemed to care about what they were wearing- Maureen was wearing black sweatpants and her infamous tank top that showed her belly, and Alexa was in jeans and an oversized sweatshirt, her eyeliner still smeared across her face. I tried to imagine what this must be like for her, what she must have gone through to want this emancipation so bad. I turned to face the door just as it was being opened.

"Hi. My name is Joanne Jefferson and I'm Alexa's attorney." I stuck my hand out and the man who opened the door shook it.

"Come in. We're very anxious to hear Alexa's side of this story." He stepped back and held the door open as we walked in- first me, then Maureen, and then a very pissed looking Alexa. We followed him into what I assumed was their family room where he motioned for us to sit on the couch. I placed my briefcase on the coffee table before sitting down. Maureen Sat next to me and placed her head on my shoulder. "Not now, baby." I whispered into her ear. She pouted at me, but reluctantly sat back up. Shortly after the three of us were situated on the couch, a woman who I assumed was Alexa's mom entered and sat in a chair on the other side of the room. Figuring I should break the awkward silence surrounding us, I opened up my briefcase and pulled out Alexa's case folder. The silence grew louder, so I cleared my throat before crossing my legs and opening Alexa's folder.

"I'm pretty sure that everyone knows why we're here, but before we begin I wanted to get a few things out of the way." I placed Alexa's folder out on the coffee table and pulled some papers out. "From what I understand, you both are aware that Alexa wished to be emancipated from you two, correct?" They nodded their heads. "Now, under any other circumstance we typically would not require a face-to-face meeting with the parents, but it will be hard to convince a judge to allow Alexa to be emancipated without parental consent, considering her situation." I turned and looked at Alexa who was looking at her hands that were folded in her lap. I turned back to look at her parents. "The first thing that I need to know is whether or not you support her wish to be emancipated."

There was a moment of silence as I waited for her parents to answer. Her father opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get a chance because her mother began to talk.

"I'm going to say right now that I do not understand why Alexa would ever want to leave us and I do not think she is ready to live on her own, but I know that both her and Cynthia are not going to give up until she's out of here, however," she uncrossed her legs and then recrossed them before continuing, "I won't cause any trouble if she would agree to be adopted by another family. I have been thinking about this the past few days, and this seems like the best and easiest option for her and us. So whatever needs to be filled out or signed for that, I'll do it and we can just get this over with."

I didn't know what to say. I had heard some crazy stories about emancipation cases gone wrong, but I'd never heard this before. I turned my head and saw that Alexa was now sitting up, looking at her mother. "So, um, Alexa, do you want to do that?" She continued glaring at her mother as she answered me.

"I don't care. As long as I get the hell out of here, I'm fine."

"Ok, well that completely changes the nature of this case, and I don't have anything we'd need to arrange and adoption with me right now," I said as I closed up Alexa's folder and put it back in my briefcase. This meant that we could go home tonight if we left soon. "That means that I'll have to send you the papers when I get back to New York. Other than that, I have nothing else. If you guys don't have anything to add, then we can get going back to New York."

"I want to get my stuff." Alexa said.

"Is that ok?" I asked her mom, who nodded. "Ok Alexa, just don't take to long. I think we're about to lose Maureen." Maureen had laid her head on my shoulder and she look like she was going to fall asleep any minute.

Both Maureen and Alexa slept the entire ride home. When we got back to the building I was able to wake Alexa and get her to walk up to the apartment, but I wasn't as lucky with Maureen who insisted on being carried back. After I placed her on her side of the bed I collapsed next to her and fell asleep.

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**did you guys like it? love it? hate it? whatever you thought, please please please REVIEW! the more reviews i get the more inclined i am to get the next chapter up... so yea. if you review chapter nine will be up sooner!**


	9. Chapter 9

**so here it is, chapter 9! i'm going to try and type up chapter 10, but i'm leaving for texas tomorrow so if it's too long then i won't type it all cuz i need to pack.**

**so obviously maureen and joanne aren't mine, but alexa is.**

**don't forget to review!**

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I couldn't believe I was late. I was _never_ late. Maureen was going to kill me. It was Friday, and I had been listening to Maureen talk about this appointment all week. I have never seen her so excited before, and I've had plenty of opportunities to see her excited. Then again, I couldn't really blame her. This was the first time I was going with her to one of her sonogram appointments. I had gone with her to most of her appointments, but she had never let me look at the sonograms before. I had so many things running through my mind that I didn't even realize I had gotten onto the elevator. I was so excited; 3 more floors and I'd get to see her baby. My baby. Our baby.

The second I walked into the office I could hear Maureen arguing with her doctor. From what I could hear, the doctor wanted to start the sonogram but Maureen wanted to wait for me to get there. I walked through the waiting room and let myself in the back.

"Pookie, you're late!" Maureen said, sounding pissed. "This asshole here wanted to start without you." she said as she gave the doctor a death glare.

"It's ok, Honeybear. I'm here now." I stood next to her and helped her lie back on the table. The doctor cautiously sat down in the chair next to Maureen, still looking a little afraid of her. He rolled her shirt up over her stomach and started applying the sonogram gel until Maureen insisted that I do it. He handed me the bottle of gel and I began covering Maureen's belly with it as he set up the ultrasound machine. I prayed that he would get started soon because there was something about rubbing this gel on Maureen's stomach that turned me on. He must have know what I was thinking because he told me that I had done enough and that he was ready to begin. I closed the bottle and handed it to him as he placed the transducer on the side of her stomach. I held her hand in between mine as he spent a few minutes watching the screen. Finally, he turned the monitor around so that we could see it and smiled at me.

"You guys probably already knew this, but you're having a girl." Maureen and I looked at each other and she squealed like this was a total surprise, but I didn't care because she looked so cute, and I was trying to contain myself from jumping up and down because at least one of us needed to be professional. Sure, we had knows from the start that it was going to be a girl, but seeing the image up on the monitor was too amazing to put into words. We stayed there for about 20 more minutes as he showed us different things on the screen. I got to listen to her heartbeat for the first time and watch on the screen as she kicked. I held Maureen's hand as the doctor cleaned her off and helped her sit back up as we discussed different birthing options with the doctor. We got the sonogram video from the doctor and then headed out of the office back to our apartment.

I didn't say very much on the cab ride home and I could tell that it was bothering Maureen, that she could tell something was up. I knew just from the way she looked at me that she was concerned about why I had been late today, but wasn't sure if she should ask about it or not. I figured that she would find out eventually and it would be best for her to hear it from me.

"Baby, I'm sorry I was late today." I held her hand and looked her in the eye. "I got tied up in the office. I had a meeting. With Alexa. And her parents." I paused for a minute to look at Maureen. She looked confused, but then again, I couldn't blame her. I'd be confused too if she got really serious and emotional over something like this, something that shouldn't concern me outside of the office. Needing to get to my point, I continued. "We went over everything that we needed to finish up before we start looking for a family to take her, and," I paused and took a breath. I continued on, "out of nowhere she said that she only wants to be adopted by one family. Us."

I squeezed her hand as I watched her take this in. "I told her that I would have to talk it over with you first, but that she shouldn't get her hopes up because this may not be the greatest thing right now, considering that the baby's going to be here in 2 months."

As I sat there waiting for her to respond I noticed that we were already in front of our building. "We can finish talking when we get inside," I said as I opened my wallet to pay the driver.

"No," she said. "I mean yes. We should adopt her. Is that ok with you, Pookie? I mean, she's been staying with us for so long that it feels like she's already a part of our family. She'll be leaving soon anyways, plus it might be nice to have someone else around when the baby comes. It wouldn't feel right to not have her around when the baby comes because she's been through most of the pregnancy with us and even helped when we decorated the nursery. I didn't want to say anything before just in case you didn't think it was a good idea." By now we had made it to our floor and were standing in front of our door. I took her hands in mine and looked her in the eye.

"Maureen Johnson, have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"Yes, Pookie, and I can't wait for this baby to get here so you can tell me again." She giggled and smiled devilishly before I pulled her in for a kiss. I broker apart from her when I heard a door close somewhere down the hall.

"We should probably go inside. We don't need a repeat of the day you moved in."

"But Pookie, that was fun!"

"Maybe for us, but I don't think it was very fun for the Jansens," I told her, referring to one of the families on our floor.

I unlocked the door and led Maureen inside. I put my bag on the floor and took out the tape that the doctor had given us. I put it in the VCR and pulled Maureen over to the couch and into my lap as I sat down. As she situated herself in between my legs I picked up the remote and pressed play. I slid my arms up under her shirt and rested them on her swollen belly and kissed her curls as the video of the sonogram began to play. She took my hands and moved them up to the top of her belly.

"Pookie, she's kicking," Maureen said as she tucked her head in between my chest and chin and turned back to the video. "She's going to be beautiful, Joey. Just like you."

I took one of my hands off of her stomach and used it to bring her face up to mine. I gave her a short but passionate kiss on the lips and as I pulled away I said, "No, Honeybear. She's going to be beautiful, just like _you._" She pulled me in for another kiss and I ran the hand not on her belly through her curls. We broke apart and sat in silence watching the rest of the video as we stole glances at each other when we thought other wasn't looking. When the video finished Maureen pulled herself up into a sitting position and turned to face me as I pulled my legs up underneath me. We sat there and just talked for almost two hours before we decided to go back to our room and go to sleep.

The next few days went by smoothly without anything too exciting happening. Cynthia's daughter was in town and Alexa had decided to stay with them for a few days to visit and catch up which left Maureen and I with the weekend to ourselves. After spending Saturday morning filling out the last of Alexa's adoption papers I helped Maureen finish baby-proofing the apartment and then helped her finish up the nursery/Alexa's room. Alexa didn't mind having her room in the nursery, but once we moved the baby from the bassinet in our room into the crib in the nursery we were pretty sure that she was going to changer her mind, so Maureen and I had already started brainstorming on what we could do about that. So far we had nothing. Sunday night we spent an hour picking out a name. We had somehow managed to agree on one name out of our list of thirty: Grace Michaela Johnson-Jefferson. Grace had been on of the names we had like from the beginning, and it seemed like the obvious choice after Maureen's graceful, complication-free pregnancy. It took us the most time to come up with a middle name, but we finally settled on Michaela. When Maureen was four her twin sister, Michaela, died and it just felt right that we should name our first daughter after her. Maureen had never told me what had happened with Michaela and I didn't feel like I should ask her. I knew that talking about Michaela was very draining for Maureen, so I wasn't surprised when she said that she wanted to go to bed when we finished. Realizing that I needed to be at the office pretty early the next morning, I decided to join her.

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**hopefully i'll have chapter 10 up soon, but please please please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**i got chapter 10 typed up! yay! so this is probably one of the most exciting parts of the story... at least i think it is. i'm not sure when i'll be able to get the rest up, i really need to go pack for texas now! so i hope you guys like it, and please review!**

**x.x peace**

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While I worked that week Maureen took Alexa shopping and helped her decorate her half of the nursery. Alexa had agreed to be home schooled by Maureen for the rest of the year, but we were requiring her to finish up at a private school in the city for her senior year.

When I got home from work on Friday I was greeted by Maureen who informed me that Alexa had gone over to a friend's house and that she would be staying there for the night. Normally I would have lectured Maureen about this, but right now I was more focused on finding time to be alone with Maureen before the baby came. We decided to keep things simple and just relax- something we wouldn't be able to do once Grace got here. Maureen had ordered a pizza for us earlier so we ate that and watched movies all night. Well, Maureen watched the movies. I was watching her. I could stare at her four hours. Her dark curls, her pale olive skin. I watched the little faces that she made whenever she readjusted herself to accommodate the weight of her belly. She was just so cute.

A little bit later (when I had actually started paying attention to the movie) I noticed that something was wrong with Maureen. She had been moving around more frequently and now she was making the faces that she made when she was in pain.

"Honeybear, are you ok?"

"Pookie, I think my water just broke."

Shit.

"Um, are you having contractions? Should I call the doctor? Do we need to go to the hospital?" I sat up and grabbed the phone. Stay calm, Joanne. Now is not the time to panic. "I think I'll call the doctor. How far apart are your contractions?" I asked her as I dialed the doctor's number.

"Five minutes. Maybe four."

"FIVE MINUTES! Holy shit Maureen, we need to get to the hospital!" I had never had a baby before, but I knew that when contractions were five minutes apart that meant the baby was gonna be here _soon._

"But what about the doctor?" she asked as I ran back to our room and grabbed her stuff before ushering her out the door and onto the elevator. "What about Alexa?"

Shit. Did we even know where Alexa was, what friend she was with? I should have asked Maureen earlier, when I had first gotten home. "Did she take her cell with her?"

"Yea. She did." We were almost at the hospital now. The cab I had somehow managed to hail for us pulled up in front of the entrance and I pulled Maureen out of the car and dragged her inside. If it weren't for the fact that she had a zero tolerance for pain she would not be having the baby in a hospital because she _hates_ hospitals.

When we got to the front desk it took me awhile to get someone's attention. I had a really hard time getting them to let Maureen go back before I had finished filling out the paperwork, but once she started screaming and yelling at them there wasn't any problem with that. Once they had Maureen set up in her bed and she had been examined by a doctor I handed her the paperwork to finish filling out so that I could call Alexa. Fortunately I was able to get a hold of her on my first try and she said that she would be at the hospital in five minutes. I turned my attention back to Maureen who was yelling at the nurse that was examining her now.

"I'm going to call your doctor because it looks like this baby is going to be here soon," she told me. She looked back at Maureen and said "You're 7 centimeters dilated already. I'm gonna send someone in here to start your epidural now."

"Thank god," Maureen said as she fell back against her bed. "Pookie, what are you doing all the way over there? Come here!"

I got up from where I had been sitting on the other side of the room and went and sat at her side. I let her squeeze my hand during each of her contractions and was unsuccessfully trying to get her to use the breathing techniques we had practiced. When the nurse came in with the epidural it became my job to keep her distracted and calm while they stuck the needle in her back. After battling with her to keep her still(she was scared to death of needles) while they cleaned off her back, I was finally able to calm her down significantly by pulling her face to mine and sticking my tongue in her mouth. When I pulled away she seemed slightly disappointed, but then remembered that she was about to have a baby and quickly forgot about it. As we finished getting her propped up in a comfortable position in her bed Alexa burst into the room, followed by a girl whom I assumed was the friend she had been staying with.

"Did I miss it?"

"No, but you missed Maureen getting a huge ass needle stuck in her back, which will probably never happen again," I said to Alexa as I smirked at Maureen, who returned my look with her infamous death glare.

"I'd feel a lot better right now if I wasn't a lesbian."

"Honeybear, you do realize that if you weren't a lesbian you'd most likely be in the situation, right?"

"Yea, I know that, but at least I could yell at the guy and tell him it's his fault that I'm here. With you, I can't really do that."

I actually felt a little bad for her when she said that. I mean, I was perfectly capable of having our baby, so why did she have to suffer for me?

"Honeybear, I love you so much right now." I leaned over and kissed her forehead and ran my fingers through her sweat soaked hair. "I can't believe you're doing this for me."

"Pookie, I love you. I just wish that this would be over with. Can't this go any faster?"

I giggled at her impatience. "Baby, if I could make it go faster, I would. I want to see our daughter just as much as you do, but we're going to have to wait," I told her as I continued to stroke her hair and looked into her eyes. Our silence didn't last for long, though, because just as Maureen's doctor walked into the room, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Joanne? Thank god you answered! I just got your message, how's Maureen doing? Has she had the baby yet? Is she ok? Is the baby ok? Do you guys need anything? I'm on my way over with Jess right now, so we can stop and get anything if you need us to."

"Mark, Mark, calm down! She hasn't had the baby yet, and everything is going fine. Alexa's here with one of her friends, so just take your time getting here." I was interrupted by Maureen tapping my arm. "Pookie, the doctor needs to tell you something."

"Mark, can you hold on for a second? The doctor needs to tell me something." I handed my phone to Maureen and turned towards the doctor. "Is something wrong? The nurse who was just in here said that everything was fine."

"Ms.Jefferson, calm down, nothing's wrong. I just finished examining Maureen, and she's fully dilated. I'm going to have her moved into the delivery room while I go get changed. As soon as everyone's ready Maureen and start pushing and we can get this baby out of there."

He left the room and a nurse came in and started getting Maureen ready to move to the delivery room and I took my phone back from her.

"Mark? How far away are you? The doctor said that Maureen's ready to start pushing, so try to get here as soon as you can."

"Sure thing, Jo. Jess and I are about 15 minutes away."

I hung up my phone and started to gather our stuff together before standing up and walking alongside of Maureen as we headed towards the delivery room.

Here goes nothing.

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**did you guys like it? love it? hate it? let me know! i'll be back when i'm done(or close to being done) packing! unless it's 9 and a girl like me is on... don't forget to watch it! and don't forget to review :-) **


	11. Chapter 11

**sorry this took me so long to get up, especially since i typed it almost three weeks ago while i was in texas, but i've been really busy with drama camp and such, especially the part where i've been freaking out with finding out that these two cousins in my camp have an uncle who's really good friends with idina. but anyways, here's chapter 11, i hope you guys like it, there's two more chapters to go for this one and then i'll start typing up the sequel, which has about 6-ish chapters so far. i say 6-ish because i got writer's block in the middle of one chapter but i had an idea for something that should happen a few chapters later, so i've been writing that while trying to decide what to do about the chapter where i have my writer's block. ummm... yea i think that's about it. oh yea those two cousin's uncle's ex-boyfriend is also tracie thoms's best friend so he sees her at parties and stuff. i know. it's so totally awesome. he's an actor and he's in a play called shear madness at the kennedy center in DC right now. if you live in that area you should totally go see it. you might even get to meet me if i happen to be able to convince my mom to take me. so yea i'm gonna shut up now and let you guys read. don't forget to review!**

**obviously i don't own maureen or joanne, but i do own the thing that comes out of maureen's vagina at the end of this chapter.**

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"Maureen, can you let go of my hand just a little? You're going to crush it!"

"Excuse me! I don't see you in this bed having our baby!"

"Well I know I'm not, but I still don't understand why you need to squeeze my hand so hard when you have pain medication."

"_Well_ nothing. It doesn't take away all of the pain, and you don't want to know what it's like to have to push something out of you when you can't feel half of your body. Geez!"

It was so hard for me to not laugh at her. She was practically yelling at me and she was hysterical; she had barely been pushing for five minutes. I had a feeling that I'd be the one having our next baby, that is, if we were able to survive this one.

"Okay Maureen, we really need you to concentrate for us. A few more pushes and this baby will be out."

It wasn't until the doctor said that that I realized that this was actually happening; Maureen was having her baby. Our baby. It finally occurred to me that we weren't in the classroom with 6 other couples anymore. It was really happening and in a matter of minutes she'd be Mommy and I'd be Momma.

"Ok Joanne, I need you to help Maureen concentrate and breathe. I can see the head right now, and in one more push it will all be over."

I leaned over and kissed Maureen's forehead as I took her hand in both of mine. "Honeybear, you're doing great. Just one more push and it will all be over and our baby will be here. Come on baby, I know you can do this. I'll be right here next to you."

"Ok Maureen, on the count of three I want you to take a deep breath and hold it while you push. Joanne and I will count to ten while you push, and then it will all be over."

"You promise it will be over?" she asked, half crying.

"Yes, Honeybear, it will all be over." I reassured her.

"Ok."

"Now Maureen, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Ok Joanne, on the count of three I want you to help me count to ten and Maureen, I want you to take a deep breath and push. 1… 2… 3…"

As Maureen held her breath and pushed I was sure that my hand was broken from her squeezing it. The doctor and I kept throwing out random comforting encouragements, but I don't think she could hear us over her screaming.

"… 5… 6… 7… come on Maureen, she's almost here, you can do it Honeybear… 8… 9… you're doing great Maureen… 10!"

As soon as that last number left my mouth I heard the first cry come from our baby. I was in astonishment as the doctor wrapped her in a blanket and put her on Maureen's chest. I leaned over the side of the bed and kissed Maureen as we looked at our daughter. I looked at her wrapped in the blanket on Maureen's chest and smiled. The doctor handed me the scissors to cut the cord and showed me what I was supposed to do. I was surprised at how hard it was for me to leave Maureen's side and walk two feet to cut the cord. After I cut it a nurse came over and took the baby away to clean her, giving me a few minutes alone with Maureen.

"Baby, I love you so much," I said as I kissed her forehead. "She's beautiful. Thank you so much." As I finished I sat down next to her on the bed. I wrapped my arms around her and she rested her head on my shoulder.

"Anytime."

I laughed and kissed the top of her head. "You are amazing." I helped her sit up so I could look at her. "I couldn't ask for a better wife." I leaned in to kiss her on the lips, but somehow ended up making out with her. Despite the circumstance we were in, I have a feeling that things would have gotten more heated if the nurse hadn't have walked into the room with Grace at that moment. I straightened out my shirt as I stood up from where I had been sitting on the bed so that the nurse could hand her to Maureen. I just stood back and looked at them; Maureen in her white and blue hospital gown whit her sweat-soaked hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail as she held Grace, who was wrapped in a pink blanket with a pink hat pulled over her head, against her chest. After a few minutes she looked up at me and pouted.

"Pookie, why are you just standing there? Come look at our daughter- she has your nose!" She was beaming as she looked up at me was beaming even more when I sat down on the bed next to her. I wrapped my arm around her and put my head on her shoulder as I looked at Grace.

"Hi little Grace. I'm your Momma and this is your Mommy. She just went through hell to get you here." Maureen giggled and kissed the top of my head as I continued. "And she's never going to let you forget that." This time I giggled as I looked up at Maureen and kissed her. We sat there for awhile just looking at her and arguing over who she resembled the most, when I remembered that Alexa and her friend where still in the waiting room.

"Shit."

"What?" Maureen looked at me, confused.

"Alexa and her friend are still in the waiting room. I completely forgot about them." I started to get up from the bed but Maureen stopped me as she pulled me in for another kiss. After we broke apart I left the room to go find Alexa.

As I turned the corner in the hallway and walked into the waiting room, I froze where I was as I tried to process what I was seeing.


	12. Chapter 12

**wow! i think this is the quickest i've updated so far! too bad it's the last chapter :-( but you guys don't have to worry, i already have five-ish chapters of the sequel written! i might post the first chapter later today, but i can't think of a title for it yet and i don't wanna just call it "sequel to what's in a name?" you know? so if you guys have any suggestions for a title, feel free to leave them in the reviews that i just know you all are going to leave! well, i hope you guys like this chapter, and thanks to everyone who's read this whole thing and especially thanks to the people who have reviewed!**

**x.x Lo**

**oh yea, i obviously don't own joanne or maureen, but i do own alexa, and i semi-own grace and amanda, but only they know what i mean by that.**

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"I hate to interrupt your, uh, bonding time right now, but Maureen and I would like Alexa to come in and see Grace," I said as I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest, trying to keep a serious look on my face despite the hilarious look of shock on Alexa's. "So, Alexa, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"Oh, um, yea. Joanne, this is Amanda, Amanda that's Joanne," Alexa said as she climbed off of Amanda's lap and back into her own chair. "We, um, didn't think that Maureen would have had the baby this soon. I guess we were wrong."

"Yea, you were. Do you want to come and see Grace and Maureen now, or do you want to wait until tomorrow morning?" I asked her, still leaning against the door frame.

"Sure, but can Amanda come? I don't want to make her wait out here alone."

I looked at the blonde sitting in the chair next to Alexa before uncrossing my arms as I moved from my position against the wall. "Sure, I don't see why not, I mean, she's practically family," I added, with a smirk on my face.

Alexa gave me a death glare as she stood up and led Amanda out of the waiting room. As she followed me to Maureen's room she kicked the back of my leg, and as I turned around to look at her she mouthed "I'm gonna kill you." "Not until after we talk" I mouthed back.

When we got back to the room I immediately went over to Maureen and took Grace from her. As I held her I looked down and just couldn't believe how beautiful she was. She had Maureen's stunning baby blue eyes and my tiny pudgy nose. Her skin was a light brown, a perfect mix of Maureen and I. I went over and showed her to Alexa and Amanda, and after much protesting from me I allowed Alexa to hold her. After a few minutes she handed her off to Amanda who held her until she began to cry. She handed her back to me and I took her to Maureen so that she could nurse her.

Amanda sat down in the chair next to Maureen's bed and began telling her about a new play that she was in at her high school. Maureen had been in a play with Amanda a few years before we met, and they had stayed in touch ever since. When Maureen decided that Alexa needed to make friends, she took her with her to go see one of Amanda's plays, and they had been best friends ever since. Well, at least I thought that's all that they were and from what I could tell I was pretty sure that was all that Maureen thought they were, too. Amanda and Maureen seemed to be really into their conversation, so I decided to take that opportunity to talk to Alexa. I walked over to where she was standing in the corner of the room and just stood there, not quite sure what to say.

"What?" she asked me after finally noticing that I was standing there.

"We need to talk." I leaned up against the counter opposite her and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Ok." She leaned against the wall across from me and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want to know?"

"I just wanted to know why you never told Maureen or I that you were a lesbian."

"It never came up," she said, more to the floor than to me. Suddenly she looked up at me, the death glare from earlier on her face once again. "Why? Do you have a problem with it or something?"

"What? Of course I don't! It just would have been nice to know so that I wouldn't have had to find out the way that I did."

"Pookie, can you come over here? They're about to take Grace to the nursery," Maureen called from her bed.

"Well," I said to Alexa "I'd better get over there before she throws a fit."

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**once again, i hope you guys liked it, and don't forget to review! i think i got this chapter up a lot faster because i got more reviews for the last chapter than i have for any other chapter, so if i get just as many or even more the sequel may be up sooner! **


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